Getting Past What Is

The world/universe cannot, and will not, always give
you what you want.
There are three ways to react when something is "not
right":

1) You can become depressed, sad, bored, angry, and/or
fight the world.
Such thinking only hurts you or the world, because what
is, is what is.

2) You can simply accept whatever life throws your way,
that is a much
better way to go. You make the best of what is, as much
as you can.

3) You can do much more when you do not fully rely on what
is. You are not 100%
dependent on the world. You cannot stop the world,
so why let it stop you?
Whatever you have when you
close your eyes is
always yours. You may have to learn to
think slow means go (and
freedom). Dead
ends mean you can attempt to find something productive
to do. When someone
or something says no, their no contains seeds of
creating many more yes
situations that rely on your short and long-term
thinking and actions,
which you can (mostly?) control.

The phone does not ring. What does this mean? Almost
always, it means the
phone is simply not ringing. That is all it means,
unless your mind
attaches extra meanings to a phone not ringing. (The
same is true with
email, dollars, postal mail, and faxes.)

You could feel bad or bored or worse - thinking that
slow is wrong or bad.
What slow, or not getting what you want really means,
is it is time to
think or do something else.

In the example of the phone, be available to answer the
phone, but do not
dwell on the phone situation, or let it slow you down.
You can clean,
listen to music, spend time with family or pets, do
filing, back up your
computer, work on a web site, write an article, shop,
cook, read, watch
TV, exercise, pray, meditate,
or do a thousand other productive
or enjoyable things.

There is a great song, written by Roger Miller named (I
think Jim Nabors
sang the best version) "You can't roller skate in a
buffalo herd". A
portion of the song lyrics are "Ya can't drive around
with a tiger in your
car - but you can be happy if you've a mind to - All ya
gotta do is put
your mind to it." I think this song is a model for a
good state of mind: I
cannot get the world to do what I want (right now) but
I can do all kinds
of other things, that can or should be done, or are
just fun.

One analogy I think of is that I control voltage, and
the world controls the
amperage. Voltage is electromotive force - the
potential to get things
done, to make things move or happen. Amperage is the
power - the things we
cannot directly control. If the voltage and amperage
combine by chance or
plan, good things may happen.

Here are some examples of how I think of the world in
terms of voltage and
amperage:

When I smile, that is voltage, what my smile
accomplishes depends on who
is around and how they react. I cannot control that,
that is what I call
amperage. I can create a nice web site, but I cannot
make people go there.
I can pet my cat, but he might later barf on the
carpet.

The actions I take and how I behave, maximize my
chances (voltage) for
success - but the amperage is external, the part I
cannot control. I am
the voltage, the world is the amperage.

Examples of amperage are my looks, the weather, the
economy, the
government, media, religion, my age, other people -
things I cannot
control are amperage. A thousand volts does very little
at zero amps.

When circumstances are dire, you may have to create and
have a lot of
voltage to cause any extra amperage. Even then, it is
kind of a karma
thing, lots of voltage seems to create opportunity that
seems to attract
and invite amperage to produce some good results.

To the extent you can
control what you can control, you can make things
better. Examples might
be your web page, your looks, your work, your outlook,
your attitude, and
your actions. Most of what happens in life happens in
your own head, if
you are a hammer, the world will look like a nail.

If you directly or indirectly help people, it builds up
good karma.
Worrying is ineffectual. If you can affect the outcome
for the positive,
then act. If you cannot, then accept you cant and hope
for the best.

I sometimes pretend I am working on a antenna to hear
or broadcast what I
can control. If you take dead time, and make it
productive time, you are
working on your antenna.

How effective will your antenna be in picking up
signals? That is not up
to you directly, however when you improve your
thinking, behavior, your
work habits, your web site, or anything else you can
improve, you are
inviting great outcomes.

When it is "dead" and nothing is happening, that is an
opportunity for
doing something productive. Writing this article near
Christmas, seemed a
productive thing to do on a rare day when business was
slow.